Anyway, anyone else see it as a little fishy that Gilliland and Rudd are all of a sudden in 1st and 2nd for the 500 and they both had Jarrett and Sadler's old cars/company when they were finishing close to dead last? Anyone else out there on the same page as me? I'm just mad because Waltrip has already screwed up (impounded car with "illegal" substance?) and it's not even the season yet. I just don't want Jarrett to get negative attention because I think he's doing a great thing trying to help Toyota get going. Plus he's just my favorite driver so I want him to do well no matter what.

But levying stiff fines will certainly make a crew think twice before crossing the line. That was the goal Tuesday as NASCAR suspended four crew chiefs for cheating and took the unprecedented step of docking four drivers points before the season-opening Daytona 500.

Whether it's enough to clean up the sport remains to be seen.

``You have a lot of rules that are up for interpretation, you're going to have a couple of people who want to try the system,'' said France, NASCAR's chairman. ``There's a lot on the line. That's been going on forever. It will go on forever.

``But it's our job to escalate penalties. It will be undeniable that when you keep pushing the system and test the integrity of the sport, we will do whatever it takes.''

NASCAR suspended the crew chiefs for Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Scott Riggs and Elliott Sadler in its strongest statement to date on cheating. All four cars failed qualifying inspection, and a fifth, Michael Waltrip's startup Toyota Camry, faces additional penalties that could be even more severe.

Kahne, Riggs and Sadler are teammates at Evernham Motorsports. Kenseth, the 2003 series champion and runner-up last season, drives for Roush Racing.

All four crew chiefs can appeal, a process that could allow them to work the Great American Race. If they do and the committee cannot schedule a hearing before Sunday's race, they would be allowed to participate.

But Roush Racing already has a replacement for Reiser, and said the 500 will be the first race he has missed since the team's inception in 1999 -- a stretch of 255 races.

The harsh punishment is unprecedented but not unexpected: NASCAR threatened last summer to ratchet up its fines to curb the cheating.

``They are doing exactly what they said they were going to do,'' said two-time series champion Tony Stewart. ``Anybody who got a penalty knew that if they stepped over the line, this is what's going to happen. NASCAR said for months that if you step over the line this is what's going to happen. So they really don't have any room to complain.''

NASCAR is still investigating Waltrip, who had a car part seized and shipped back to North Carolina for further analysis.

It's the second straight season that NASCAR's biggest event has been marred by cheating scandals. Last year, Jimmie Johnson's crew chief was sent home for four races when he was caught cheating in qualifying. Johnson won the race without Chad Knaus, who rejoined the team in March and helped Johnson win the Nextel Cup title.

NASCAR did not strip points from Johnson because the sanctioning body had been reluctant to force a team to start the season in the red. But after three cars failed inspection during Sunday's qualifying session, NASCAR decided it had to up the ante to deter teams from continuously pushing the envelope.

The actions come at a time when France is attempting to jump-start the family business, which seemed to plateau last season after years of booming popularity. With television ratings down, attendance at a standstill and France still trying to match the NFL's broad appeal, NASCAR felt it had to crack down on cheating.

Still, NASCAR stopped short of kicking the teams out of the race, a move many believe would be the ultimate punishment.

Kenseth and Kahne had their qualifying times thrown out after inspectors discovered illegal holes in the wheel wells, which could have improved aerodynamics.

Evernham maintained the holes had been covered with duct tape that apparently fell off before the Dodge was inspected. But officials said the tape had been cut.

Riggs and Sadler's cars both had modifications that allowed air to leak out of the trunk area. It was discovered before qualifying and had not been announced by NASCAR before Tuesday.

Waltrip, meanwhile, had a suspicious substance in the intake manifold of his Camry. The part was seized before qualifying, and the car was impounded after the session.

Inspectors plan to examine the car Wednesday, and NASCAR has not decided if it will be returned to Waltrip in time for Thursday's qualifying races. No penalties have been decided as NASCAR continues investigating.

Waltrip is the marquee face of Toyota, which is making its Nextel Cup debut this season. It was uncertain if the two-time Daytona 500 winner would make the race. Now it's unclear if NASCAR will even allow him to race in Thursday's qualifiers because he's facing an even stiffer penalty.

Four not including Waltrip, who is now docked 100 driver's and owner's points, fined $100,000, and his crew chief and VP of MWR is suspended from Nascar indefinately from... well... whatever he did to boost his horsepower.

I'm seriously ashamed the DJ is driving under Waltrip's name. It's sickening to see what happened and it's not even the season yet! WTF?! Scr*w Waltrip. (can we say that? Meh) I'm rooting for DJ, and DJ alone...oh and that little rookie they have....Reutimann?

Micheal needs to SERIOUSLY rethink his actions. Not only did he just give himself a bad name but he could possibly ruin DJ and Reutimann, they could be put out of a job because of him. I'm so furious and absolutely disgusted with this. I have a horse show this weekend and it's a huge one that's very important to me and so I have to record the 500, it'll be my first missed 500 in 8 yrs. This truly sucks.

Joined: 13 Apr 2006Posts: 185Location: Two Places At Once Under the Sun

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:44 am Post subject:

It really is quite appalling that they have had to dock so many points off of several drivers for illegal/cheating purposes, especially before the season started odd with Daytona. It's good that Nascar is breaking down on the cheaters and giving stiffer penalties to prevent further cases from getting away with it though.

As the Kim Possible season 4 opener was on last week, I didn't get to see the Bud shootout, except the last few seconds to crossing the finis hline. I did get to see Daytona 500 though, and it is one of the craziest races I've seen in a long time. According the them, probably one for the record books.

It started out fairly normal, and ran that way for about thre quarters of the race. Only one or two cautions throughout most of that time.

It was in the last quarter everything went to chaos. Leaders up to that point--Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart--had an inevitable crash with each other, and were pretty much out of the race from there. Johnson and several others had a collision sometime after that.

The last stretch--probably the last six laps of the race--were the most crucial. Dale Jr, Rudd, and McMurray collided and ended their day, caution came in and they were red flagged for a time. With only two laps when the green was signaled, Martin looked to to be the victorious---until turn four, that is. More chaos--Bowyer had his car flipped while crossing the finish [which reflipped] without serious injury, a lot of the ones in the top fifteen [Kyle Busch, remaining teammate, and several others] had another collision leaving it open for Harvick to steal the lead by a mere .002 of a second from Martin. Jeff Burton followed in third.

I'd say this was a good one to have taped if you didn't get to seeing it live. More action occurred in the last 30 laps then in most of the rest of the race, or any races preceding it in a long time. As Daytona usually is, nothing was to be expected.
Mara

_________________"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."---Martin Luther King, Jr.

That scared the crap outta me when Bowyer flipped, but thank god luck was on his side; he got his lap back, missed two wrecks narrowly, and then flipped at the right time to get him across the finish line. I'm glad he's okay.